The MODS Editorial Committee would like to announce the availability of a draft schema for MODS 3.5. Version 3.5 will be backwards compatible to 3.4 and therefore only includes changes that do not result in invalidating existing MODS records.  Changes listed below include the change, its purpose, examples, and the date approved by the MODS Editorial Committee  (this information is also available at:

The draft schema is at:

Please send comments by June 7, 2013, after which we will finalize version 3.5.


Changes in this version:

  1. Add attribute @unit in mods:extent (Approved 2012-03-12)

    This change makes the extent element more granular by separating units from extent.


         <extent unit=”pages”>12</extent>
  2. Add rfc5656 to languageAuthorityAttributeDefinition (Approved 2012-03-12)

    Enumerated values reflect earlier standards; RFC5656 has superceded RFC4646
  3. Add @altFormat and @contentType attributes to <titleInfo>, <abstract>, <tableOfContents> and <accessCondition> (Approved 2012-09-17)

    This change allows for embedding HTML in MODS, linking with @altRepGrp, and indicating the format of the alternative encoding. It applies to those elements that are most likely to have values that need HTML or other formatting that cannot be expressed inside a MODS XML record. Use the altFormat attribute to link out of the record to the same content, formatted or marked up in a different way. Optionally, include the contentType attribute with a media-type as its value (e.g. text/html) to indicate the content type of the target. Where there are multiple alternatives, use the already defined altRepGroup attribute to bind the related instances of each element.


    <abstract altRepGroup="A" altFormat="" contentType="application/xhtml+xml"/>

    <abstract altRepGroup="A">l'histoire d'un cheval et un garçon qui aimait</abstract>
  4. Add @eventType under <originInfo> to indicate production, publication, distribution, manufacture (Approved 2012-04-23, Revised 2013-01-23

This attribute allows for indicating what type of event the statement of originInfo relates to, e.g. production, publication, distribution, manufacture, or some other event.


<originInfo eventType="publication">
           <placeTerm>Menlo Park, CA</placeTerm>
     <publisher>Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities</publisher>
     <dateIssued encoding="marc" point="start">1985</dateIssued>
     <dateIssued encoding="marc" point="end">1988</dateIssued>
     <frequency authority="marcfrequency">Annual</frequency>

  1. Add @typeURI on <identifier>, <note>, and <physicalDescripton>/<note> (Approved 2012-09-17)

    This change allows for indicating that a type is in the form of a URI.


    <identifier typeURI="">9780385333511</identifier>
  2. Add @generator on <classification> (Approved 2013-01-09)

    The value of this attribute indicates that the classification number was automatically generated and, if appropriate, how.

    <classification authority="ddc" edition="22" generator="" >813.54</classification>

  3. Add <etal> element, a subelement of <name> (Approved 2013-01-23)

    The <etal> subelement is added to the list of <name> subelements to indicate that there are one or more names that, for whatever reason, cannot be explicitily included in another name element.


            <namePart type="family">Fox</namePart>
            <namePart type="given">Nellie</namePart>
            <namePart type="family">Phillips</namePart>
            <namePart type="given">Bubba</namePart>

Would mean "Nellie Fox, Bubba Phillips, and others"

8.       Add @otherType on <titleInfo> (Approved 2013-02-20)

This allows for specification of other title types that are not explicitly enumerated in the MODS <titleInfo> attribute @type.

<titleInfo lang="chi" script="Hant">



<titleInfo otherType="transliterated" transliteration="chinese/ala-lc">



<titleInfo type="translated" lang="eng">





Rebecca S. Guenther

Network Development & MARC Standards Office

Library of Congress

Washington, DC 20540

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